1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to nut crackers. More specifically, this invention discloses a nut cracker which contains as an integral element a nibbler for providing selective cracking pressure for difficult to crack nuts.
2. Prior Art
Nut crackers of all shapes and sizes have been created for many years. Because the shell of a nut is usually much harder than the nut meat, care must be taken when cracking the shell so as not to break or shatter the meat. It is thus important in the cracking of the nut that sufficient force be applied to the nut to crack the nut's shell without shattering the meat contained within the nut.
A significant number of nut cracker mechanisms using lever arrangements have been disclosed which permit the application of pressure to the nut shell while attempting not to shatter the meat contained therein. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,499,653 discloses a nut cracker with conventional upper and lower jaws for cracking the nut which uses a pivoting lever mechanism to increase the amount of force that can be applied to the nut being cracked. Other such levered nut crackers are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,173,825, 1,543,797 and 1,693,493.
Instead of a levered mechanism for the cracking of nuts, there have also been disclosed devices for cracking nuts comprised of a fixed jaw and a screw-threaded shank. Such a device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,145,962.
In addition, a device used for the cracking of nuts which contains a levered mechanism and a flat head with a number of prongs attached thereto is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,572,378.
Although a number of different mechanisms for cracking nuts have been disclosed, there is still a problem with the removal of the meat from the nut after the initial cracking. Further, it is frequently difficult to apply selectively pressure to one particular point on a nut's shell to crack further that shell. No single device has solved these problems to permit an efficient nut cracking device.
Therefore it is an object of this invention to provide a nut cracker for the efficient cracking of nuts.
It is another object of this invention to provide a nut cracker which permits the cracking of the nut by use of an upper and lower jaw and also permits selective cracking of the nut by a nibbler.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide a novel nut cracker which permits the application of selective pressure against the nut shell being cracked by directing the pressure to one particular point on the nut shell.
These and other objectives and features of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from a consideration of the following detailed description, drawings and claims. The description along with the accompanying drawings provides a selected example of construction of the device to illustrate the invention.